SAN FRANCISCO — Mark Hurd, the ousted CEO of Hewlett-Packard Co., has settled a lawsuit brought by his former employer that sought to stop him from working at rival Oracle Corp.
Under the terms of the settlement announced Monday after the stock markets closed, Hurd agreed to relinquish stock he was given in his severance package.
H-P and Oracle said in a joint statement that Hurd will be able to perform his duties as an Oracle co-president without spilling H-P’s trade secrets.
Earlier on Monday, Hurd made his public debut as a co-president at Oracle, showing off a new data-storage computer at the company’s annual conference.
Hurd was forced out as H-P’s chief last month in the wake of a sexual harassment investigation. He accepted the post with Oracle in early September, prompting H-P’s lawsuit.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison evidently didn’t want to risk having Hurd handcuffed by the lawsuit.
After publicly scolding H-P’s board for its “vindictive” act, Ellison privately called H-P director Marc Andreessen to start negotiating a settlement of the Hurd lawsuit, according to a person familiar the talks. This person wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.
Oracle spokeswoman Deborah Hellinger declined to comment on how the settlement came about.
Hurd’s appearance on stage Monday reinforced the important role Hurd is expected to play at Oracle despite the controversy, which he did not address during his talk at the conference.
Hiring Hurd was a coup for Oracle. Ellison, who is also Hurd’s tennis buddy, is shifting Oracle into direct competition with the computer and server maker it has long partnered with.
Rivalry between H-P and Oracle intensified when Oracle closed its acquisition of Sun Microsystems early this year; H-P has said hiring Hurd has further strained the companies’ alliance.
After the settlement was announced, Ellison said in a statement that the companies would continue to “build and expand” on their decades-long partnership. H-P made a similar pledge.
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